The Age of the DemiGods
by BelleEdlynn
Summary: Its official. Theirs an unofficial new age. Now Percy, Annabeth, Grover, Thalia, and 4 others must wait as the prophecy unravels. Will they survive?


**Chapter One:**

**I almost replace my cousin**

When earth almost swallowed me; I knew there would be trouble to come. My day was going fine, until I found myself face to face with Ares, god of war. Whoa, whoa, whoa, let me back up. My name is Percy Jackson, you may or may not know me, but I bet you've heard of my dad. No, he's not Elvis; he's Poseidon, Lord of Oceans, Horses, and Earthquakes. I was at Camp Half-Blood that winter break to help Grover his "lord of the wild" thing and to check out the new cabins, so I went down to the pegasi stable to talk with Blackjack, my Pegasus (being Poseidon's son, I can do neat stuff like that).

Anyways, I greeted Blackjack and fed him carrots, he whinnied,

_"Yo, boss, now that you're a hero can you get me a ribbon or something 'cause I helped a lot during the war ya' know!"_

"Sorry man, maybe I'll get Tyson to make you a medal"

_"Tyson? The big guy… well boss… Guido's sorta, resting from his last trip…"_

"Don't worry, I don't need transportation yet, but you'll be amazed what Tyson can make with the right tools"

_ "Okay boss, if you say so. Next time can you bring brownies?_

" I'll see what I can do."

_"You're the man, boss! Ya' know, you should be like the demi-god of war, I mean with your awesome fighting this summer…"_

**(Ah, here's where I started.)**

I glanced around to make sure that I wasn't suddenly in Hades, thank the gods I was still in the stable, but then a fire burst out near the stack of hay and there was Ares, god of war, standing against the stable wall.

"You challenging me punk? 'Cause if you are, let's have a war and see who's better? I bring the army, you bring the navy and we battle, and you gonna' be the first one I pummel."

"No," I said, trying to control my temper, my anger always acted up around the war god. "I was just talking with Blackjack, he didn't really mean it…RIGHT BLACKJACK?" I glared at the winged horse.

_" Yeah, of course, I was just… err well you see... I didn't mean it, please don't smite me!"_

Ares snorted, "Yeah well don't do it again, I still prefer the battering ram to you unreliable pegasi." Then he started glowing, and I covered Blackjack's eyes, while I averted mine.

"Now don't anything comparing me to a job already taken" I warned Blackjack.

_" Y-y-y-eah boss, whatever keeps that guy away."_

I said goodbye to the Pegasus and ran towards the lake and teamed up with Malcolm, one of Annabeth's half-brothers. Annabeth herself was deep into her planning and couldn't spare losing time. With my water-powers and Malcolm's smarts we came in second to Clarisse and Chris Rodriguez. Chris turned out to be a son of Hephaestus, god of fire. I congratulated them on the way back to the cabins, Chris smiled and said thanks but Clarisse just grunted.

At dinner, everyone went up to the bronze brazier, "Poseidon," I said as I threw is fresh bread and some roast beef. Mr. D. or Dionysus seemed happier that usual, "Last summer Perhey Jathon with the help of his friends, saved Olympus. Huzzah for that!" Since today was the first day of winter break Chiron and Mr. D threw a "party" for several reasons,

a) Belated victory celebration, b) the cabin construction was finished, c) the construction on Olympus was about to begin.

I went over to Nico, at first he didn't notice me, too busy fiddling with the soda top, "Need help?" I asked. "AHH!" he screamed, the soda spraying his face. "Sorry," I said,

I helped him clean up. Now usually mortal soda is against camp rules, but for this special occasion the rules were broken. "Umm, Nico I came over to ask about, the heroes who... you know died last year." Nico had grown older; he was now 13 or so, around the same age as I was when I had started Camp Half-Blood.

"I haven't been there for a while but last I saw things were fine. Mrs. O'Leary and Cerberus have been keeping Bob, um, Iapetus entertained. Michael Charlie and Silena went down to the Lethe and Luke is in Elysium with Ethan."

Chiron clopped in and announced that because of the party we would not have a campfire, so we all left to head back to the cabins.

We reached the Hades cabin and stopped outside the door. Nico was still the only person in the cabin and I asked him if her ever got lonely,

"Yeah, before it wasn't so bad like with Bianca, and… Chloe."

"Who?"

"Bianca's old friend from…somewhere, hmm I don't remember where but they were really good friends."

"That's odd"

"Really? Well I'm pretty tired, see you tomorrow!"

"You too, Zombie dude!"

I walk back to my cabin and pass by the Stoll brothers who are getting lashed by Mr. D for stealing soda from the party. I shake my head laughing as I arrive at my cabin.

The next day Tyson came to visit and we all (Nico, Annabeth, Grover, Tyson, and I) went to Olympus to see submit the plans.

Annabeth and Tyson went to find Zeus and Athena, while the rest of us walked through the bazaar. I was eying an aquarium with miniature hippocampi in it for Tyson when Grover remembered that he still needed a child list from Apollo. We went down to the amphitheater where a concert had just finished, and found the muses back there.

"Hello, I'm Euterpe, Muse of lyric poetry," said one, "I don't suppose you're here for a free 'I love Muse' T-shirt?"

"No, actually I was looking for Apollo"

"DID SOMEBODY REQUEST THE GREAT APOLLO?" boomed a voice. "Yes sir," I said. "Oh, well then he's right here," Apollo replied as he walked in with a bouquet of lotus in one hand, a towel around his neck, and his lyre in the other hand. Grover asked him about the child list and Apollo replied, "Let's See, there's: Tesni from Idaho, and Hikaru from California and I think there's a Theron in Mississippi, and there's … Darren.

"Darren?" I asked

"Yes, He disappeared around 1977 I had assumed he died but I checked in with Hades a few months ago and he hasn't heard anything."

"That's strange," Nico put in, he was right, it was the name Darren seemed to ring a bell in my mind, but I couldn't place why. Then Annabeth and Tyson came back, smiling, "They loved my plans!" we all congratulated her, except Tyson started fiddling with Apollo's flowers.

"You like lotuses Cyclopes? Me too, though I also prefer sunflowers."

"Apollo?" Another muse peered out from the door "We have a rehearsal in 5"

"Thank you Erato, what would without my muses? You know, one of them has the same name as that tree girl friend of yours, Thalia. Anyways, later dudes!"

As we walked back down to the elevator I suddenly remembered

"The Lotus Hotel and Casino!"

My friends looked at me puzzled, I told them about when we were stuck in the Hotel and I had met a boy named Darren who said it was 1977. That seemed to ring a bell in Nico's head, "Chloe!" He exclaimed, "That's where she is," he explained to the others what he told me last night. Annabeth got a fiery look in her eyes, "We have to do something," she stated, " not just for Apollo and Bianca, but who knows how many other half-bloods are stuck there?" Grover looked at her, doubting, "Exactly, STUCK, last time we barely escaped, we shouldn't push our luck."

"It's not luck Grover, it's fate." I said

"Are you trying to help?" he half-asked, half-bleated, "They creep me out!"

"Goat boy right," added Tyson, "Fates make Tyson scared."

"Besides", Grover said, "I'm teaching young satyrs to find demi-gods, and Tyson has was training."

Nico frowned, "Fine then Annabeth, Percy and me will go, we have to ask Chiron first though. If we get approval then we head to St. Clarion's Academy to visit the oracle."

"Sounds like a plan," I said, "Everyone okay with it?"

They nodded but looking closely at their faces, things were clearly not okay.

That night we asked for a quest from Chiron, he agreed and said we would head to see Rachel tomorrow morning.

The next day, at dawn Nico shadow traveled us to Clarion's Lady's Academy. Rachel was sitting on her couch staring intently at the floral centerpiece in her dorm, a pencil poised above the sketchpad on her lap. She looked up but didn't seem surprised, I was to ask her how she was doing and about the quest but she interrupted me.

"Percy, Annabeth, Nico, last night I had a dream you would come," she smiled, "Clarion's not to good, but better than I expected. They have a nice art class and I made a lot of friends, but let's get to the bigger problem. The prophecy, you already know it."

"We do?" asked Annabeth

"Yes," Rachel flipped to a page in her book and ripped it out. A familiar scene of a tree with golden leaves was drawn and writing on the bottom.

" And foes bear arms to the doors of death"

"The next great prophecy? You mean that's about us?" I asked

"Aww!" complained Annabeth, "I wanted that to be someone else's problem."

Rachel smiled dryly, "The prophecy will unravel itself throughout the next few years, and I'll help when I can, but--do you guys know what tree this is?" Annabeth studied the sketch, her eyes widened, "That isn't Hyperion's tree?"

Rachel nodded.

"But how will it help us?"

"The leaves, each one will let a half-blood one entrance and exit for the casino, but if you pick to many then the tree will die, and Hyperion can escape."

"How do we know how many to pick?"

"The tree will not die as long as each pick has a real value, you cannot pick 'extras'"

"Percy, how many to we need?"

I counted up the demi-gods in my head: Chloe, Annabeth, Nico, Darren, Me, that was 5 but… how many other's are there? Glancing at Annabeth I mentally asked her that question.

"Rachel, how many do we know how many are in there? We can't leave anyone behind!"

"The answer is in the prophecy plus a special number, though they might not be the right people, it is the right amount."

"Meaning?"

"I'm sorry Annabeth, that's all I can say, and that's all I know."

"That's not surprising," snorted Annabeth

"About the quest," Rachel finished, giving Annabeth a meaningful glance.

" I was kidding!"

"Uh-huh"

"Guys?" Nico said, "We better get going, before it gets to bright out."

"Okay, Nico, let's go," Annabeth said

I said goodbye to Rachel and Nico shadow-traveled us to my house, for some more provisions. As I went to get him ambrosia the doorman buzzed in, "A Ms. Grace here to see you Mr. Jackson,"

"THALIA!" Annabeth yelled, "Percy, Tell him to let her up." So I did.

She arrived at my door with a platter of cheeseburgers, and a smile.

"Hey Guys, How's Life been?

Annabeth smiled even wider and raced to the door to hug Thalia.

"How did you know where we are?" Annabeth asked.


End file.
